[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 9328]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     COURT SECURITY IMPROVEMENT ACT

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, earlier today the Senate passed S. 378, 
the Court Security Improvement Act, with overwhelming, bipartisan 
support. With this legislation, we in the Senate acted for the third 
time in a year to better protect our Federal judges from institutional 
and physical threats.
  For the past several years, I have introduced and sponsored 
legislation to extend the authority for Federal judges to redact 
relevant portions of their financial disclosure statements if they have 
been threatened. The authority to redact portions of judges' financial 
disclosure statements expired last year.
  The redaction authority bill passed by the Senate last year would 
have extended the redaction authority without interruption and expanded 
it to judges' families. It struck the right balance by preserving 
congressional oversight to prevent the misuse of this redaction 
authority, which has been a matter of some concern.
  I was disappointed that the House of Representatives failed to act on 
this legislation that passed the Senate last November but I am pleased 
that the new House of Representatives was able to pass it earlier this 
year. I continue to support an extension of redaction authority for 
threatened judges and am glad that the Senate is passing that measure, 
H.R. 1130 today. I trust that the President will sign it into law 
without delay.

                          ____________________